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June 23, 2008
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Should I see it?
No.



Sure it has style and some people may like the music, but like the original source material, this is just an ugly piece of work. Slathered in sanguine scenes of low lives getting their arteries let out, this musical tells the dark tale of a man bent on revenge. Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp) is torn from his loved ones and imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. He survives jail and returns to exact revenge on those who did him wrong. He joins forces with the sneering Mrs Lovett (Helen Bonham Carter), who runs the worst bakery in London. Todd opens a barber shop above her and begins to slit the throats of his victims who's corpses are sent below to be cooked into her meat pies. This is hideous stuff.

I know since this is a big budget rendition of a Broadway hit, I'm supposed to bend over backward in my praise. The fact is that, other than a humorous appearance by Sacha Baron Cohen, the film has very little personality and even less purpose. The violence is over-the-top and the moral decrepitude of the characters is barely studied. This is just a premise worked out on screen with no meaningful result.

Tim Burton's Mall-Rat Goth style fits well with the subject but his inability to produce three-dimensional characters really makes this film insufferable. Like in his other movies, the people on screen are scribbles of characters who linger far beyond their initial charm and eventually become props to Burton's design work.


Related Reviews:
Tim Burton movies
Big Fish (2003)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)


Other Critic's Reviews:
A Nutshell Review
2 Reels


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posted by Michelle Obama's Left Nut at 3:00 PM




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